


wayward mothers and broken daughters

by PaladinofFarore



Category: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angella isn't dead, F/F, F/M, mom friendships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25176673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaladinofFarore/pseuds/PaladinofFarore
Summary: The woman was in her fifties with the age lines around the eyes and cheeks to go with it. She wore light armor, the sort meant for quick movement and flexibility. Her hair was blonde like Adam’s, but with streaks of gray running through it. Her eyes were light blue. A familiar blue. So much like Adora's. This woman, Angella would soon discover, was Adora's mother."We are alike, the three of us," The Sorceress would tell her. "Each with a daughter who is lost to us."The portal had closed around her. And when the other end had deigned to spit her out, she found herself on another world. A world with stars in the sky, and a young blonde protector with a magical sword. Eternia. Homeworld of the First Ones. Birthplace of Adora. The Queen of Bright Moon finds herself thrown from one war into another. A year later, when both wars come to an end and peace is restored, she will have much to tell her own daughter.She had been a coward once. No more. Now she would fight.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Angella/Micah (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), He-Man | Adam & Teela, Marlena/Randor (He-Man)
Comments: 47
Kudos: 164





	1. Arrival

The first thing she remembered after the portal was darkness. Darkness, and then pain. Aches ran up her arms and legs, and her wings were stiff, restrained by thick ropes that pulled them in close to her body. 

She was in a cell, Angella realized quickly. A dark corner of an ancient stone structure. The floor was wet, and a dank, mildew smell hung in the air. She coughed, hard, shaking her chest. 

It wasn’t long before one of her jailers appeared. 

Before, she had been in complete darkness. The flickering light of a lantern stung her eyes as it loped into view beyond the rusted bars of the cell. 

“You live,” said a silky, feminine voice. 

A young woman holds the lantern. Dressed in robes of rich velvet that slashed outward at the hips, in her other hand she holds a long metallic staff, and atop her head rests a bladed headdress with jewels that hung across her forehead. A witch, Angella knew at once. Nothing else was familiar. Not the style of dress nor the markings on the staff. 

“We had thought you dead,” she continued. “Only ghosts roam that old house. The memories of a broken branch of a mighty line. You are no ghost.” 

“I am not,” Angella agreed. With a grunt she rolled herself up into a sitting position. She barely managed it. Her back ached just as much as the rest of her. “May I ask who you are?” 

“So polite,” the witch mused. Turning she set the lantern in an indentation in the wall. Suddenly, the cell and the entire corridor were filled with firelight. “Refreshing, to have a guest who doesn’t scream and shout at the first inconvenience or discomfort.” 

“‘Guest’,” Angella repeated carefully. She bit back the anger in her throat. She forced herself to calm. Anger would not serve her here. “Do you put all of your guests in cells and restrain them like this?” 

“Most of them, yes,” said the witch. “Far more convenient to our purposes. You should be honored to even set foot in this place. My master only allows those he finds interesting or useful to grace his halls.” 

Angella felt a snarl rise in her stomach. 

“You are Shadow Weavers replacement, then,” she said, heated. “She won’t be pleased that Hordak found someone so young to take her place.” 

The witch gave her a strange look. She tapped her staff once against the stone floor. 

“These names mean nothing to me,” she said, after a moment. Her tone was perplexed. 

“They would not,” said a new voice. A deeper, very male voice that sounded both high and low in the same instance. Angella felt her blood turn to ice. Her body tensed, and unconsciously she eased herself back, deeper into the cell. “She is not from here.” 

The witch stepped back and bowed. 

A new figure stepped into view. Tall and broad shouldered, the figure, the man, was draped in a long blue-black cloak. He too carried a staff, metallic, and topped with a rams head. Twin swords hung at his belt, and runes criss crossed his armored breastplate. The cloaks hood was drawn, and one glance at the darkness that hung beneath it, the void there, made the queen of Bright Moon want to wretch. 

“Leave us, Lynn,” the man said. “I will speak to our guest alone. You will take Beast Man and guard the site. Intruders are certain to arrive soon.” 

“Yes, Lord Skeletor,” the witch, Lynn, said, dipping another bow. Straightening, she moved to go, but not before shooting Angella one last satisfied look. 

Angella listened until her footsteps faded from hearing. She kept her gaze downward. As far from the hooded face as she could manage. 

Silence hung in the air for a moment, dank as the smell. 

“I had never thought to see an Etherian in these lands,” the man, Skeletor, said. “Legend tells that the traitor killed them all along with herself. Killed them, or spirited them beyond all reaching.” He leaned forward. The emerald eyes of the rams head atop his staff flashed in the firelight. 

Angella looked up. She looked past the hooded head. Looked at nothing, while pondering his words. An etherian? She wondered. 

“Where am I?” she asked, putting voice to her thoughts. 

Skeletor chuckled, like the gnashing of blades. 

“Very far from home,” he said. “I can see by your clothing, and your bearing, that you are of high station.” He bowed, cloak flapping behind him. “It is my honor to welcome you to Eternia, birthplace of the first, and last, empire.” 

Eternia, Angella thought, thunderstruck. She knew the name. Outside of historians and lovers of folktales, few on Etheria would know it. She, however, was far older than most Etherians. She had heard the name passed through the centuries. 

“You are…” she hesitated. “A First One?” 

Skeletor regarded her. 

“Is that the name the Etherians give us?” he asked. He sounded pleased. “A fitting title. We are Ra Eternium. The first among all. It is good to know that fact has not been forgotten. What, my lady, is the state of Etheria?” 

Angella said nothing. Her jaw tightened. 

In that moment, she decided that she would answer no more of his questions. This man...this thing, was not to be trusted. She had endured much in her centuries of life. She would endure this.

Skeletor sighed. 

He threw back his hood. 

Angella would not claim to be a brave woman. She had thought that after the portal, after having made that one great step towards redeeming her cowardice, perhaps she could muster up more courage than before. 

The cackling skull beneath the hood, and the blood curdling scream that escaped her throat at the sight of it, were proof enough that at her core, she was still spineless. She blacked out a moment later. 

She dreamt of Glimmer. She dreamt of her daughter alone in an empty castle. 

When she awoke next, she was greeted by the sight of another young woman standing outside the cell. The lantern light had been extinguished, but a neon cylinder at the young woman’s belt filled the cell with pale blue light. She had bright red hair pulled into a high ponytail, and was dressed like a warrior. 

A staff, or what Angella thought was a staff, peeked out over one shoulder. She knelt before the cell door, hands moving back and forth with a pair of small tools. 

Angella must have made a sound upon waking, because the young woman looked up. She lifted a finger to her lips. Angella remained silent. 

A minute passed and then the lock clicked open. Slowly, the girl pushed the door open, teeth clenching at the squeaking of the hinges. 

“Hi there,” the girl said. “Are you alright?” 

“I am...as well as can be expected,” Angella said, slowly. The girl nodded and reached into her belt. She drew a knife, and without another word she set about cutting Angella’s bonds. 

“Good,” the girl said. “Can you walk? I’d offer to carry you, but they’ll be company on the way out.” 

Angella stretched, feeling the bittersweet pain of blood returning to her various limbs. 

“I think I can manage. Thank you.” Teela didn’t respond at first, and when Angella turned she found the girl gaping open mouthed at her wings.

The girl blinked, then shook her head. 

“That was...unexpected. No wonder they nabbed you. You’re not an Avian, are you?” 

“I am not,” Angella said. She flexed her wings experimentally. They ached terribly. It would be a time before she would be capable of flight again. “Though I thank you for your assistance. It is...appreciated.” 

The girl smiled. 

“No problem.” She stood up and offered her hand. “I’m Teela. Nice to meet you. Sorry it had to be in a pit like this.” 

“I’m Angella,” the queen said, taking the girl's hand and letting herself be pulled upward. Her legs nearly buckled beneath her. A strong arm looped itself around her waist. 

“I gotcha,” Teela said. “Did they hurt you? You look pretty beat up. Lyn knows how to cause pain. Probably her only real talent.” She said this in a low voice as she helped Angella hobble out of the cell and into the corridor. 

“I do not think so,” Angella said, wincing. “I...was hurt before they found me I think.” 

“Was it from coming through a portal?” 

Angella stopped and looked into her rescuer's face. 

“It was,” she whispered. “How did you know?”  
“We’ll get into that later,” Teela said. With a grunt, she pulled Angella up a little higher on her shoulder. She was a very strong young woman. The queen could feel her taut muscles even through her combat jacket, and despite Teela being a good deal shorter than her, she bore the weight easily. “For now we need to get out.” 

They rounded the corridor into another, shorter one. There were others cells lining the walls but they were empty apart from a stray skeleton or two still shackled in place. 

“Where are we?” Angella asked. 

Another planet, she said in her mind. Another world altogether. That fact was so huge that it somehow became small in her thoughts. It was the only way to process it. Was it true? She couldn’t help but wonder that she’d gone entirely mad. 

“Old fortress just inside the Dark Hemisphere,” Teela said, brusquely. “I’m gonna need you to keep quiet for a sec. They could be ne-” 

The wall ahead of them exploded, and Angella felt Teela shove her downward as an enormous mass of fur went sailing over them. From the floor, Angella gaped as the giant furred thing writhed and slashed at the air with claws that came within an inch of her cheek. The thing crashed into the wall behind them and righted itself. 

The creature was ten feet tall, wide as the corridor, and had a face somewhere between that of a wolf and a bear. It shrieked.

“Shit!” Teela yelled. 

Angella yelped as she was pulled up. Her head head rang from the vertigo, the tossing and turning of it all. Legs nearly tangling the two of them sprinted forward.

Angella looked up. 

Ahead of them, a face popped out of the broken hole in the wall leading out into the night air. A boy with messy blonde hair and a pair of blue eyes that she would recognize anywhere. As he came more into view She had no time to be startled. 

“Come on!” the boy yelled, gesturing wildly with his hand. 

The two women stepped through the wall and out into the night air. Teela pulled them to one side, tucking them against the exterior castle wall, just as the Beast-Man came hurtling back through it. He tumbled across the ground, carving a gash in the dirt as it went. He vanished into a line of trees, a dull thud sounding as he came to a stop against a trunk. 

The boy looked at them. Beside him stood a green, nearly elderly looking cat the size of a large dog. A scarred marred one eye, and lines of yellow fur criss crossed it’s back. His pink shirt hung open, and everything about him was flustered. 

“I-” he began, glancing quickly between the two women and the monster slowly rising behind him. “I have to-” 

“Why didn’t you before!” Teela snapped. 

“I panicked, ok!” the boy snapped right back. “He got the drop on me! Can she keep a secret?” he pointed directly at Angella. 

“She’ll have to,” Teela said through gritted teeth. Neither of these young people, these teenagers, bothered asking Angella herself. “Do it.” 

The took a deep breath and stepped back. The posture of the gesture was as familiar as his face, his eyes. He did not draw a weapon, but as he threw up his hand above him, a silver sword with a red jewel on the crossguard appeared in his grasp. 

“BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!” 

The evening exploded with golden light. Angella and Teela both shielded their eyes with their hands. 

When those eyes opened, the boy was gone, replaced by a towering man.

He wore sleek, form fitting black pants that emphasized the musculature of his legs. Golden armlets encircled his biceps, and he wore a breastplate with a large red cross emblazoned at the center that ended just above the midriff. Stud earrings dangled from his earlobes, garnets, and his blonde hair had gotten several shades lighter. 

His blue eyes blazed with light, and a cocky grin replaced the almost embarrassed face of the boy. 

“She-Ra,” Angella whispered. Teela stiffened beside her. 

“HE-MAN!” the Beast-Man bellowed. He had finally managed to pull himself free of the trees and had lumbered his way back towards the three of them. Angella would have been shocked the thing could speak, had she not just witnessed such a transformation. “The coward prince ran away again?! Of course! And he thought he was going to get away with our new prisoner!” 

The cackle that escaped his throat was somewhere between a growl and a manic laugh. 

“Prince Adam just has some decent taste in playmates,” said He-Man. “Sorry Beast-man. It might be your smell. Have you considered-” he was cut off by Beast Man’s next charge. 

He-Man pivoted to one side, lifted his fist, and punched. 

The Beast Man was nearly twice his size, but still he was sent all but flying back into the forest. 

Turning on his heel He-Man levelled his sword at the green cat. The effect was instantaneous. The same golden light that had surrounded the boy, Prince Adam, burst up around the feline. In her place was another cat, one the size of a tank, with rust colored battle armor that formed a saddle at the top. 

“Come on,” Teela urged. She stepped onto the lowest part of the battle armor and offered Angella her hand. She took it, and the queen found herself being hoisted into the saddle. 

In a single jump He-Man launched himself into the front of the two women. 

“Go, Battle Cat!” he urged, and the three of them rode into the night, Beast-Man’s howls growing distant behind them. 

There was a moment of quiet, and for the first time, Angella could truly look around. 

Above her, stars glittered in the sky. Countless stars like pinpricks of light on a dark tapestry. To their left stood an enormous forest that reminded her greatly of the Whispering Woods, and off to the right was a dim orange glow. Turning her head to look, she could see a point on the horizon where night became day. It was as if day and night were separated by a wall, and that wall was visible for all to see. 

“Sorry about that,” He-Man said. He looked over his shoulder at her, hands still firmly on the pommel of the enormous cat’s armor. “Our rescues usually go smoother than that.” 

“Like hell they do,” Teela snapped from behind Angella. “They’d go well if you’d think for a minute!” 

“I did think,” He-Man said. “It got us out of there didn’t it?” 

“You got lucky and you know it,” said Teela. “It’s a miracle Lyn didn’t come around.”

Angella shook herself free of her daze and finally spoke. 

“I am thankful for your assistance,” she said levelly. “But may I ask who you are? I am...quite new to all of this.” 

The understatement of the year. 

She couldn’t actually remember the last time she’d ridden one of her castles horses. Now she was riding a cat the size of a war-weapon, on another planet. In the span of less than a day her repertoire of activities had expanded beyond all imagining. She had to phrase it that way to herself, or otherwise she might just scream. 

She was on another planet. She glanced up, and felt herself shudder. Her wings grew even stiffer. 

“Oh right,” He-Man said, embarrassed. “Sorry. My name is Adam….I’m also called He-Man…” he scratched at the back of his head. 

“Which is supposed to be a secret,” Teela said, tersely. 

“It was an emergency!” Adam insisted. “We rescued her! That’s the important part.” 

“It is,” Teela admitted, grudgingly. 

“For which I am grateful,” Angella said, slightly less patiently this time. “This is Eternia, correct? The planet Eternia, home of the First Ones?” 

A myth. A place historians had debated the existence of for centuries. 

The two teenagers shared a look. 

“You’re...you’re really an alien, aren’t you?” Adam asked, quietly. It was remarkable how little He-Man meant when he spoke like that. He was eight feet tall and glowing with magical light. But he was very much a teenage boy in that moment. 

“I am from Etheria,” Angella said. She took a deep breath. A calming breath. One question at a time. That was the ticket. One question at a time. The boy looked just like Adora. He-Man...She-Ra...she would build to those questions. 

“Lost Etheria,” Teela said, quietly, reverently. “You mentioned She-Ra.” 

“Then the term means something to you?” 

Again, the teens shared a look over her shoulder. An entire conversation in a glance. It reminded her of Glimmer and Bow in a way that made her heart ache. 

“You came here through a portal, didn’t you?” Adam asked. His gaze was entirely on her. Beneath them, the giant cat moved at a steady clip across the countryside, perfectly capable of navigating without her riders input. 

“I did,” Angella confirmed. In her minds eye, the image of the black vortex and the Sword of Protection hanging at its zenith flashed. 

“Where did you come out?” Teela asked. “Was it in an old house?” 

Angella shook her head. 

“I do not remember. I went through the portal, and then, when I woke, I was in a cell, with that sorceress looking in on me.” 

Adam drew in a long breath. 

“It...it has to be.” 

Teela reached around Angella and placed a hand on his enormous shoulder. 

“Adam,” she began. Her next words were cut off by a new voice. 

“He-Man!” 

Battle Cat slowed, and her three riders looked up in time to see a rider approach. They wore a dark cloak that obscured them in the night, but that did little to hide their mount. The horse was mechanical, built from gears and metallic plates and glowing bulbs in place of its eyes. Battle Cat came to a stop, as did the rider. 

They lowered their hood, and Angella gasped. 

The woman was in her fifties with the age lines around the eyes and cheeks to go with it. She wore light armor, the sort meant for quick movement and flexibility. Her hair was blonde like Adam’s, but with streaks of gray running through it. Her eyes were light blue. A familiar blue. 

Angella stared. 

The woman was Adora’s spitting image, and her mind began to fit the pieces together. 

“He-Man,” the woman said, nodding to the warrior. 

“Queen Marlena,” Adam said, nodding. Angella felt him stiffen in front of her. Acting. 

“Adam is safe then?” the queen asked. Her gaze was firmly on Angella. Unreadable. 

“He is,” Adam, He-Man said. “He took shelter in the woods not far from here.” 

“Good,” Queen Marlena said with a nod. “Would you and Teela go and escort him home? I’ll take our guest from here.” 

“Yes your highness,” Teela said at once, dutifully. She lowered herself from the saddle, and offered her hand to Angella once more. “Queen Marlena will answer all of your questions, Lady Angella.” 

Still looking at Marlena, Angella took the offered hand and let herself be helped to the ground. She walked the few paces to the strange mechanical horse, and took another hand, this one sheathed in a black glove. She settled down behind queen Marlena. The saddle of the mechanical beast more angular than the one on the cat. 

“Thank you, He-Man,” Marlena said. “This...this means a lot.” 

“I know it does, your highness,” the magical warrior said, solemnly. “We’ll get Adam home safely.” 

“I know you will. Teela, I’ll see you later tonight. He-Man, good luck out there.” 

Pulling on the reigns, she turned the horse, and the two of them were off across the hills. 

Were the scenario different, were it not so terrifying and new and bizarre in every way, Angella may have been more skeptical. May have been more defiant, or have flown away if she were capable. But she wasn’t skeptical, she found. She did not wish to flee. She wanted answers. About where she was, and how she may return home.

“My son got you out okay?” Marlena asked after a minute of riding in silence. 

“Teela did,” Angella answered. “And...you know he is your son?” 

They had said it was meant to be a secret. 

Marlena snorted. 

“He’s my son. You think I don’t know him just because he’s suddenly a few feet taller and glowing?” She turned in the saddle. “Who are you, and where are you from?” The questions were neutral and purely transactional. The questions of a seasoned diplomat. 

“I am Queen Angella of Bright Moon,” Angella said. “Of the planet Etheria.” 

“Is She-Ra there, active?” 

“She is,” Angella answered. “I spoke with her, before I came here.” 

Marlena nodded, as if she had been expecting that answer. They rode on in silence for another minute before the next question. 

“What is her name?” 

“Adora.” 

Another minutes passed, and then, they came upon a hill with a squat, modestly sized home sitting atop it. It was built of fine stone and sturdy timbers. It looked unoccupied. 

Marlena pulled the horse to a stop, dismounted, and offered Angella her hand. 

Silently, the pair emptied the house. The moment the door opened, Angella could smell it. The distinctive, eclectic smell that had hung around the portal. Like thunder and ozone and something else other wordly she could not name. 

They walked through the deserted halls until they came to a door that had once been painted all the colors of a rainbow, now faded with time and neglect. Marlena opened the door and she stepped inside. 

The room was empty of furniture, but like the door, the walls had been painted with an assortment of animals, many of which Angella could not name. She and Micah had painted a room like this so long ago. This was a nursery. One that had not been used in a lifetime. 

“You came in through here,” Marlena said. “Roughly six hours ago, a portal opened in this room. It spat you out, and Skeletor’s warriors found you here before we could. I’m sorry for that. We were otherwise occupied.”

Her apology was genuine, Angella could tell. She could also tell that this queen was doing everything in her power not to break. Her voice was brittle. Her pacing around the room was a calculated distraction. 

“I am grateful for the rescue either way,” Angella said, carefully. “Your son and his friend are very brave.” 

Marlena actually smiled at her then. 

“They’re quite the pair, aren’t they? I swear, a moment ago they were up to my knee, wrestling each other. Now Teela is captain of the guard, and Adam is set to inherit.” Her breath was a shuddering note. 

“It was the same for me,” Angella said. “One moment my daughter is squealing in my arms. The next, she’s charging off to battle.” She felt that she...knew this woman, with Adora’s face. The truth of it was looming. Any moment, the penny would drop. 

The two women shared a brittle laugh. Marlena continued on pacing. 

“Nearly twenty years ago, another portal was opened here. Right in this room. We thought it might be the Horde. That Prime had finally found us. But no...it was them, the old empire, my husbands ancestors.” She shook her head. “An ancient machine reached out. And it took my baby girl from me.” 

She looked up at Angella. 

There were tears in her blue eyes. Pleading. 

“We spent years trying to figure out why,” she went on. “We couldn’t reach her. Not without Prime finding us. The ancestors, they did something to She-Ra. Something bind her to us and not Etheria.” She gulped back more tears. “That’s why she was taken she…why else would it take an Eternia girl?” tears began to fall freely now. 

“It’s her, isn’t it? She-Ra?” 

Angella did not ask who ‘Prime’ was. She did not ask any questions. Instead she answered. 

“She looks just like you. Just like Adam.” 

“They’re twins.” 

The queen of Eternia began to sob.


	2. Castle Greyskull

Marlena led them from the house.

They remounted the mechanical horse. They stay there for a moment as Marlena wipes at her eyes with the back of a gloved hand.

“This was your home?” Angella asked quietly, glancing up at the house.

“For a little while,” Marlena replied. She did not look at the house. Instead she looked out over the hills. “It was a summer residence. We stayed here after...after they were born. We thought they would be safe here.”

“You thought they would be unsafe elsewhere?” Surely a palace, any royal residence worth its salt, would be safer than a lone residence on a hilltop, exposed.

“They were unsafe elsewhere,” Marlena said, mechanically.

She flicked the reins, and they began to ride. They crested the nearest hill in only moments.

“An attempt was made on their lives just a week after they were born. You may have met the man who did it already.”

“Skeletor,” Angella said at once. The image of the skull, with void for eyes and a cackle like breaking glance, seared across her mind.

Marlena nodded.

“My brother-in-law.”

Angella nearly fell off the horse. Marlena’s stabilizing hand caught her by the elbow even as a noise strangled it’s way out of the angelic woman’s throat.

“Your brother-in-law?” Angella repeated.

“He was called Keldor, then,” Marlena explained.

As they rode further on, Angella could see what Teela had meant by ‘Dark Hemisphere’. Off to their life, the world became split. On one side was day, bright and yellow like a Bright Moon morning. They rode in the dark side, inky black and blue and draped in shadow.

“My husband’s elder brother. He was heir to the throne, but the Council of Elders passed him over for being a raving psychopath. He wanted to bring back the old ways. The Empire The time of his ancestors. He still does.”

“So then he tried to kill your children,” said Angella. She had never been the best of friends with Castaspella, the younger woman had always been a very specific strain of annoying, but in the span of a few sentences her appreciation for her sister-in-law had grown exponentially. Right now, surely, Casta was at Glimmer’s side.

Glimmer, she thought, suddenly. Glimmer would think her dead.

“He did,” Marlena confirmed, breaking her free of that awful train of thought. “Randor, my husband, and Cringer, that’s the cat Adam rides, managed to fight him off. Randor stabbed him through the chest. He was always the better fighter. But Keldor...his dark sorcery….he crawled away, and when we saw him next, years later, he looked like that.”

“He made a deal with dark powers,” Angella filled in.

Marlena turned to look at her. Tired, but perhaps a touch bemused.

“You’ve heard this story.”

“I think, perhaps, that there are those on every world who will sink to any depths for power.”

Marlena looked at her a moment longer, then nodded. She turned back around, adjusting the reins in her hands.

“Again, I am sorry for this. I know you must be having one hell of night, and here I am dumping all of this on you.”

“It’s quite alright,” Angella said, though saying it made her feel for the first time just how tired she was. The aches in her body had dulled, but her head throbbed and her eyes were heavy. “You...you must’ve been searching for answers for quite some time.”

“For years,” Marlena said quietly. “Years and years.” Just a few words, but they carried so much pain that Angella felt her heart throb in her chest.

She had been without Micah for nearly twenty years.

But to have lost Glimmer in such a way? She was not sure she would have survived it. She was sure she wouldn’t have, in fact. That this woman was riding here with her, and not all but comatose with grief was miraculous.

Marlena shook her head.

“I’ll want to ask you more questions.”

“Of course.”

“And I’ll answer yours too. You just got dropped in the middle of, eh, a lot,” she looked back again, a glimmer of...was it nostalgia? “There’s a lot I bet you’ll wanna know. But first, there’s someone we need to see.”

“I hope they have a face.”

Marlena actually laughed at that.

“Don’t worry, she does.“

They rode on. The hills evened out somewhat, getting bigger, but separated by regular intervals of scrubby grass lowland. Much of the grass was browning and flaking at the edges. Many of the smaller trees they passed were dead husks. As they reached the top of another hill, Angella saw it.

Before, they had been riding away from it, their progress always facing away. But from that hilltop, from that perspective, it loomed large, dominating the sky to the east.

A mountain. But it was not a peak of stone pointing towards the sky. It was a serpent. An enormous stone snake coiled across the landscape, it’s head looking out at the top, fangs the length of Bright Moon castle prominent in its mouth. Blood red eyes stared out over the world, glowing with their own menacing light.

Angella made an involuntary noise. A little eep at the back of her throat.

“That was my reaction the first time too,” Marlena said. They did not stop on the hilltop, but they did slow. “Mount Serpos. Randor told all the stories about it. Old legends of his people. Skeletor’s main base in there now.”

A thought occurred to Angella. She grabbed onto it and pulled. A lifeline, a distraction from every new overwhelming piece of information and stimulus bombarding her.

“‘His people’,” she repeated. “Surely you mean your people?”

“No,” said Marlena. Again she looked back at her. “I am not Eternian.” She held up a hand, a bit of pleading in her eyes. “And if you don’t mind, can we save that story for another time? We’re getting close.”

Angella nodded.

There was so much. So, so much.

Their destination became obvious the moment it came into view. The temple, the castle, as it were, stood atop a dusty hill devoid of vegetation, directly at the point where the two hemispheres met. Half of the enormous skull that made up the castles front was in light, half in dark.

A city could be seen to the left, in the light. Angella hardly looked at it. The castle demanded attention. It dominated everything around it. The place was old, she could tell. Older than her even. So old that the planet beneath it almost seemed young.

“Welcome to Castle Greyskull,” Marlena said as they reined up before the front stairs. There were no doors. Only a gaping black entrance where the mouth would be.

Greyskull, Angella wondered. That word again.

For the honor of….

By the power of….

“Your majesty!” squeaked a voice.

Both women looked up as a figure quite literally floated towards them. Angella blinked. For half a moment she could’ve sworn it was an empty red cloak caught by the wind. Instead, it was a little wizard, with pointed blue ears sticking out from underneath his enormous red pointed hat and earnest, yellow eyes.

Were he to stand normally, he would’ve come up only to Angella’s knees. Floating above the ground, he easily came to the women’s eye level on horseback.

“Hello Orko,” Marlena said, pleasantly. “How was your lesson?”

“It was good!” the wizard, Orko, squeaked. His voice seemed to modulate strangely with each syllable. As if carried a great distance from his mouth. “My control is getting better! I should be able to teleport on my own, soon!” His excitement was near contagious.

“That’s wonderful, Orko,” Marlena said, kindly, with only a tinge of impatience. She swung her foot out of the stirrup and dismounted. Reaching up, she helped Angella to do the same.

Orko looked between the two women. Suddenly, he looked very embarrassed, and gave a flustered bow.

“I’m sorry, your majesty! I didn’t mean to be rude to your guest!” he gave another bow that nearly sent his hat flying to the ground.

“You weren’t Orko,” Marlena assured him. “We are just in a hurry. This is Lady Angella. Angella, this is Orko, apprentice wizard, and ward of my family.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Orko,” she nodded rather than bowed. She wasn’t sure she could manage a bow in her current state.

“Leave the queen be, Orko,” a new, gruff voice called. “She’s got things to do. So do you.”

Another figure had emerged from inside the castle. A magicat, with a swirl of white and orange fur. He was tall, broad shouldered, and carried a large axe on his back. He grabbed Orko by the scruff and threw him across his own shoulders, earning another squeak. He nodded to Marlena.

“Your majesty.”

“Cal,” she said, nodding back. “Please take Orko home, if you would. I have business with the Sorceress.”

Again he nodded.

“She’s expecting you.”

Orko still babbling on his shoulders, the magicat started down the hill, leaving the two queens alone before the castle entrance. Marlena sighed.

“A word of warning,” she said. “The Sorceress...she knows things. She can see a person, and know things without being told.”

“She can read minds?” Angella asked. Micah had explained to her once that technically that was possible, magically speaking. But that the intensity of the spell and the concentration it required would burn out even the greatest of magic users fairly quickly.

“I don’t know what she does,” Marlena admits.

She moves towards the door.

“She is a friend. But...just don’t be surprised if she already knows your name.”

The sanctuary feels immense. The room is large, but something in the air, the taste of it, the feel of it, makes it feel as vast as an open sky. Great stone pillars support the ceiling. Moss covers covered much of their surface, vibrant and green. A few small flowers bloom between cracks in the stone floor.

Near the entrance the room is dark.

At the far end of the room shone a pair of lights.

Following behind Marlena, Angella stepped closer.

At the back At back of the sanctuary a stone altar stood atop a dais. A pure white sheet was draped over it, shimmering in an almost ghostly fashion. At either side of the altar stood a stature. A woman, and a man. She-Ra, and He-Man. Each of them knelt facing the altar, their hands raised and cupped together.

Above each set of hands burned a flame.

On the floor at the center of the room was a reflecting pool. Silvery water stood still as a mirror.

Hello Angella of Brightmoon

With a start, Angella looked up.

The woman emerged from the dark space behind the altar. Her body was draped in a long robe that looked to be made entirely of feathers. The robe peaked in a hood, shaped like the head of a falcon, the beak coming to rest on the woman’s brow. She carried a staff of plain white wood. Her eyes were as silver as the reflecting pool.

“Hello your majesty,” The Sorceress said aloud. “Hello Angella of Brightmoon.”

“You knew, didn’t you?” Marlena demanded. She took a step closer to the altar. Her fists were clenched at her sides, shaking.

“I had my suspicions,” the Sorceress said, neutral.

Angella was struck by how old she sounded. How old her eyes looked. It had been a great deal of time since she’d encountered a being as old as she was. No, she realized, this woman was far older than even she was.

“No,” Marlena spat. “I had suspicions. But you don’t suspect things. You know them or you don’t. Tell me the fucking truth. Now.”

She did not yell, but her voice was like thunder.

“I did.” The Sorceress did not hesitate. She stated it matter of factly, though Angella could hear the regret in her voice. Her’s was a voice that carried much regret.

Marlena shuddered.

Turning away, she paced to a nearby pillar, and let herself fall forward, forehead resting against the stone.

“There was no malice in it,” the Sorceress went on. “You know this.”

“I know,” Marlena said. Anger bubbled in her words.

“But yes, Marlena. I knew. From the moment she took up the power, from the moment that flame came to life,” she pointed to the stature of She-ra. “I knew your daughter lived.”

“Yet you said nothing.”

“What would you have me do?” the Sorceress asked. “She is beyond our reach. We are trapped here, as she is there. You know the fate of the women who bear the name She-ra. Was I to tell you that she lived only to give you false hope?”

“I had a right to know,” Marlena turned. Her eyes were red, glistening. “I had a right to fucking know! And you made me dig it up myself!”

“I did,” the Sorceress agreed. “And for that I am sorry.”

“A stranger who popped out of a fucking portal was more honest with me than you, a woman who calls herself my friend. What does that say about you?”

“Nothing good,” said the Sorceress. “My duty, unfortunately, requires that sometimes I be cruel to be kind. I would not raise your hopes only to dash them on the floor.”

Marlena fell silent.

The Sorceress turned to Angella.

“Welcome to Eternia,” she said.

Angella managed a strained chuckle.

“You are the second person to say that to me tonight. Yours is the more pleasant face but….I am skeptical.” She huffed. Frustration finally got the better of her. “Will someone please explain….everything? I know that this is the home of the First Ones. I know that Marlena is Adora’s mother, that Adora was born here and stolen long ago. But every turn I’ve taken in the last hours have only raised a thousand new questions. So please, Sorceress, answer them for me.”

A queen's demand.

The Sorceress smiled. It was an old smile. On that was layered yet thin as a razor.

“Very well. Your majesty,” she said to Marlena. “Do you wish to help, or shall I tell the story?”

“You do it,” Marlena said, emotionlessly. She’d moved to stand near the altar. She stared into the flame cupped in She-Ra’s hands. “I’ll tell my story when I need to. You’re the priest. You do the history lesson.”

The Sorceress nodded, and turned back to Angella.

“You are from Etheria. Long ago, Etheria and Eternia were sister planets. People travelled freely between the two of them, and for a time, our peoples were nearly as one. Our language was the same. Our history was the same. Our magic is much the same, two halves of the same power. You have bore witness to both halves of this power in the form of it’s champions.”

Angella looked to the statues.

“She-ra and He-man.”

The Sorceress nodded.

“She-Ra, champion of Etheria. He-man, champion of Eternia.”

She paused and moved to a nearby wall. Angella followed. Painted in oils was a great battle. Mount Serpos, a living Mount Serpos, rose on the horizon. Painted in green and red and black, it was eldritch and ancient, ready to devour all things. At the foreground of the piece stood two golden warriors. She-ra and He-man, though their armor differed from what Angella had seen Adora and Adam wear.

“Ten thousand years ago the two champions came together to battle the dark god Serpos. Their strength combined, they sealed him away. For generations our two worlds existed like this. In harmony. Part of one another. Then...we got greedy.” She moved back to the altar, sadness in her steps.

“Eternians have always been a warrior people. We venerate the strong, the willful, the determined. That culture of power...extended to something far darker.”

She pointed with a finger at the reflecting pool, and images began to form on its surface.

Fleets of starships spreading out over the universe. Great cities of gold and silver rising over the ashes of once peaceful planets.

“We took everything we could find. Until another rose to challenge us.”

The pool shifted, and a figure appeared, shadowed, but familiar enough that Angella took an involuntary step back.

“H-Hordak?” she questioned. The being in the water resembled him...but there was something off. Something larger, grander, darker.

“No. Though they are connected. The one who ravages your world is a clone. A castoff, tossed aside by the one you see here. Prime. A man, if the word could ever describe him, who has declared himself divine, and who seeks to dominate all things. He and the old empire were each others greatest enemies.

He hunted our kind to the brink of extinction. So we decided to end everything.”

She waved her staff and again the pool shifted.

Etheria, beautiful, radiant.

For the first time, the priestesses voice cracked.

“We...we turned on our closest friends.”

“Turned on us?” Angella questioned. She schooled emotion out of her words. She was speaking as a queen now. A representative of the world shown in the pool. Emotions were less important than answers. “Our legends portray the first ones as benevolent. Bringers of great gifts and glories. Your tone tells me this is untrue.”

Marlena snorted behind her.

“The old imperials were like the people where I’m from.” She spat to one side, ignoring the less than pleased expression of the Sorceress. “Just like the good ol’ you-ess-of-ay. They decided to make Etheria their own. To make you into a weapon.”

Angella blanched. Her composure cracked.

“A...a weapon?”

How did one make a world into a weapon?

“A bomb,” said Marlena, blunt, but with sympathy in her voice. “I’ve spent years pouring over the old records. Old terminals, journals, everything I could find. The “HEART” project. All of Etheria’s magic was condensed down into the core of the planet. To make a bomb that would wipe the universe clean. With She-ra as the key.”

The Sorceress continued.

“They bound the power of She-ra. Made into a sword that can be held by mortal hands, and bestowed it upon a woman who they believed would use it to fire the weapon. To kill Prime and everything else with it. Instead, She-ra, the one called Mara, refused. She and her allies took up the name of Greyskull, a name that here means Rebellion. Those who push back against tyranny.”

The image shifted to a woman in gold and white. She had brown skin, and a somber face.

“She pulled your world into a pocket dimension. To save it, and all, from destruction. Some of our people declared her the greatest of traitors. Others chose to see her for the hero she was. In the wake of her sacrifice, the empire tore itself apart, and Prime approached….”

Her gaze fell.

“I was there, a thousand years ago. Mustering all the power I could, all the strength of this planet, I hid us away from Prime’s sight. And here we have stayed. We stayed, and the universe fell to Prime's wrath.”

The story ended.

Angella exhaled.

“That is...quite a lot.”

“You’re tellin’ me,” Marlena said.

Angella closed her eyes. Compartmentalize, she thought. Put each piece on the table one at a time. Don’t loose control. Everything she ever thought she’d known was a lie. Every Etherian historian was now proven irrevocably incorrect. Hordak, the greatest terror of the world, was an insect. Nothing compared to the looming threat that owned the galaxy now. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on all that.

“I suppose you want my story then.” She looked to Marlena.

Pain was all she could see on the younger womans face. She nodded anyway.

“Please,” Marlena said. “Show us.”

The Sorceress indicated the reflection pool.

Slowly, Angella stepped forward and knelt before the pool. Across from her, the Sorceress did the same. At the priestesses bidding, she placed her hands in the pool, and the memories flowed just like water. Words flowed from her. The story, all of it, of the war against the Horde, of Micah’s death, of the arrival one day of a Horde defector bearing a magic sword. All of it.

She left out details. She didn’t mention what she knew of Adora’s life in the Horde. She did not mention Shadow Weaver. She told the larger story first. The rest could come later. When she caught up with the present, the portal and her arrival, she looked up to see an image of Adora in the water.

Tears were streaming down Marlena’s face.

The queen of Eternia choked back a sob. She swallowed.

“What do you want to do next?” she asked Angella.

Angella wasn’t quite sure how to answer.

“Next,” she repeated. She had barely been able to think beyond the next moment. Beyond the pain in her body and the enormity of the new world around her.

“Yeah,” Marlena said. “Next. Thank you, Angella, for sharing that with us. It….it’s…..yeah. But it doesn’t do anything at the moment. You can’t go home. Not with Prime pinning us here. Sad to say, but you’re as trapped as we are. In the meantime, what do you want to do? I can offer you shelter at the palace.”

Angella looked at the walls.

She-ra, He-man, great heroes doing battle across the ages. She flexed her hands, as if clutching a the Sword of Protection in the portal. She thought of Glimmer. Of Adora. There was only one thing to do, wasn’t there?

“I’d like to help you,” she said at last. “Against this Skeletor. It is...the least I can do.”

Guilt ached at her heart. She thought of Adora again. Of a thousand childrens faces that she’d done nothing to save. Nothing to help. Perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, this could be her atonement.

Marlena gave her a smile.

“I was hoping you’d offer. We could use all the help we could get.” There was much left unsaid in the statement. They would talk more later. For the moment, she looked to the Sorceress. “You have anything else to say tonight? Beyond the usual cryptic bullshit?”

The Sorceress had already turned back towards the rear exit. From behind she very much resembled an enormous bird of prey.

“Her path is the same as those before her, Marlena,” she said, gently. Achingly. “She will meet Prime in battle just as Adam will meet Skeletor. The way is set.”

“Is that always to be the way of things?” Angella interjected, surprising even herself. “That the fate of worlds will be put in the hands of children because those before them failed?”

The Sorceress turned back. Her gaze was old. And Angella noticed for the first time that her eyes were exactly the same as Teela’s. The same color, the same shape.

“That has always been the way of things.”

“Must it be?” Angella asked.

Would they always fail as she had? The Horde had fallen to Glimmer and her generation to foil, because she could not stop them. A circle drawn in blood. The Sorceress stepped forward and placed a hand on the angelic queens shoulder.

“So stubborn. Just like me. Like her.” She nodded to Marlena. “We are alike the three of us. Each with a daughter lost to us. Each questioning the things that bind us. Our fates. I cannot answer your question, Angella. The answer has not been written yet. But I do believe you will see your daughter again. As you will yours, Marlena. Though the baby girl you lost is gone forever, you may yet know the woman you see in the water.”

She let her hand fall away and she turned to go once more.

“May those who accept their fate find happiness. Those who defy it, glory.”

The sorceress vanished into the darkness of the castle. The two queens were left alone in the sanctuary. In the reflecting pool the image of Adora faded away.

Notes:

**Author's Note:**

> I gender flipped Battle Cat basically just because.  
> I have this whole thing outlined. But comments will spur me to write faster.


End file.
